הרב שמעון בן ננס

Rabbi Shimon ben Nanas was a tanna whose teachings appear across the Mishnah and Gemara, often alongside or in debate with Rabbi Akiva. He was renowned for his command of civil and monetary law: in Bava Batra (175b) Rabbi Yishmael says that one who wishes to grow wise should occupy himself with monetary law, for there is no greater branch of Torah, and one who wishes to engage in it should attend Shimon ben Nanas. In Bava Batra (chapter 10) and in the Midrash on Vayigash he sets out the law of a guarantor (arev) — defining precisely which kind of guarantor is obligated to pay.

His rulings touch on a wide range of areas. In Shabbat (chapter 16, and discussed in the Gemara at 120a–b) he permits spreading a kid’s hide over a chest, box, or cabinet that has caught fire because it singes rather than burns, and allows forming a barrier with vessels to stop a fire from spreading — a position the Gemara analyzes in terms of indirect extinguishing. In Bikkurim (chapter 3) he holds that one may adorn the first fruits with produce other than the seven species, against Rabbi Akiva who limits the adornment to the seven species. In Menachot (chapter 4) he responds to Rabbi Akiva on which offerings and loaves are indispensable to one another, a passage drawn on by the Sefer HaChinuch.